The Evolution of Legal Process Outsourcing

Clacking typewriters, over worked owl-eyed stenos, mountains of briefs, and erratic juniors…the hallmarks of yester-year law firms. Enter the new millennium, and law firms were sleek, new age hubs of strenuous legal activity, ranging from tedious to investigative to groundbreaking. Gradually, as world economy harmonized as one, and the global business community started outsourcing its key, albeit repetitive processes to reduce costs, time, effort, and manpower, the legal world developed too.

Present day economics is governed by technological growth where advanced communication systems rule the roost. Information technology has shrunk time and distance to such an extent that geographical boundaries are mere contours instead of dividers. Following in the wake of the financial world, the legal firms across the globe realized that to adapt themselves to the constantly evolving, competitive, economic scenario, they would have to develop strategies that would balance not only their deadlines but also provide efficient support systems.

This brought about the evolution of Legal Process Outsourcing industry, where law firms obtained legal support services from key service providers, who were located halfway across the globe. Initially legal outsourcing involved low-end work like transcription. But soon the outsourcing pattern evolved to such specialized tasks as legal research, library services, pre-litigation document creation, consultation, application drafting, analysis, and so on. In the current scenario, approximately 80 per cent of companies, federal agencies, and leading law firms, opt for legal process outsourcing to reduce high operational costs and improve efficiencies. Offshore service providers are providing these key services:

Legal Process Outsourcing has emerged as a mainstream occupation for offshore attorneys, lawyers, and law firms. Common laws spread across the three continents have further boosted this industry. By outsourcing managerial, research, and support services, law firms are able to apply themselves solely to core legal matters. Moreover, offshore features like availability of English speaking lawyers, lower costs, round the clock services, faster pace of research and managerial tasks have proved advantageous to the global legal outsourcing community. In India, particularly, the formation of the LPO Trade Association has empowered the LPO industry. After years of practice, a number of LPO service providers are expanding their range of services, reinventing their strategies, and offering better bespoke legal solutions that are changing the face of legal processes worldwide.